Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., framed the closely watched hearing he chaired Wednesday as the kind of “radical transparency” that President Donald Trump and his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., promised to bring to government.

But what transpired was somewhat radical in a different way.

Cassidy, a doctor who does not fit neatly into Trump’s “Make American Great Again” movement, invited Dr. Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to testify before the Senate health committee. In doing so, he handed Monarez, whom the White House fired last month at Kennedy’s behest, the opportunity to speak about the turmoil unfolding at the agency.

Appearing alongside a second former public health official, Dr. Debra Houry, who resigned as the CDC’s chief

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